Staying Healthy: COVID is Back, the Summer Wave Came Later, Vaccine Approvals – Nick Landekic

By Nick Landekic, contributing writer

It’s been another beautiful summer here in New England. Maybe a little too hot and dry at times but still spectacular. We got off easy as the anticipated summer COVID wave did not start in early July as it has in past years – but it’s here now. The 11^th wave of the pandemic is in full swing. There is more COVID transmission happening today than during more than half of the time since the pandemic started.

Infection levels and risk are increasing just in time to coincide with the start of school, setting the stage for an even greater risk of infections this fall and winter. This means taking some precautions if you want to avoid getting sick.

Just in time, on Wednesday August 27 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the latest updated COVID vaccines.

What’s been happening with COVID?

We all would love to forget about COVID. The unfortunate reality is it’s still very much with us and will be for the foreseeable future. Because of a lack of solid data estimates vary. The Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative assesses over  half a million people are now becoming infected with COVID every day – more than 3.6 million new infections every week, resulting in 179,000 to 717,000 new cases of Long COVID every week. Most upsetting is the estimate of 1,300 to 2,100 excess deaths every week – equivalent to 20 fully loaded airplanes crashing and killing everyone on board.

The uptick in infections was large over the past two weeks meaning that the current number and rate of new infections may be greater than the latest numbers show, with a likely more than 700,000 new infections each day.

A forecast model from the Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative shows what could happen in the coming weeks:

Most of the ‘summer colds’ people have been reporting lately are probably not ‘colds.’

Why haven’t we heard more about this?

The current administration and especially Robert Kennedy, head of Health and Human Services including the Centers for Disease Control, have an unfortunate bias against established science and vaccines. Deep budget cuts at the CDC and other decisions by Kennedy have resulted in much of the monitoring and information on COVID being discontinued this year.

This year Robert Kennedy has made many changes that create a great deal of uncertainty, including removing key medical organizations from the process, cancelling some expert committee meetings, disbanding the key vaccine advisory committee of experts, appointing anti-vaxxers to senior positions, and deciding to not recommend children and pregnant women to get vaccinated – despite scientific evidence showing the benefit of children being vaccinated.

The main way we now assess COVID infection levels and the risk of transmission is by measuring levels of the virus in wastewater. Infected people shed the COVID virus in waste, which is collected in sewage wastewater. Sample testing sites around the country sample wastewater and give a real-time measure of the level of COVID virus in the community.

In addition to CDC wastewater monitoring some states do their own measurements, such as Massachusetts and New York (Rhode Island does not do independent monitoring).

8 states are currently at High or Very High levels, an increase from 4 states in the past week, and 11 states at Moderate levels. The CDC recently changed how they categorize wastewater data which puts fewer states in the high or very high categories – to make things look better than they really are?

What’s been happening with the virus?

The SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to quickly evolve and mutate. Evolutionary selection pressures mean each new variant is usually more contagious and/or more evasive of our immune system defenses than previous variants. This is how new variants evolve – those that are more efficient at spreading become dominant. The latest variants accounting for the majority of infections in the U.S. are called XFG “Stratusâ€, recently the fastest rising, along with N.B.1.8.1 “Nimbusâ€. Both are more contagious than previous COVID variants, with XFG also being about twice as evasive of our immune system defenses.

Scientific research continues to uncover a great deal of new and worrying information about the virus. Among any other things having COVID can cause an increased risk of having –

• Life-threatening blood clots and damage to blood vessels throughout the body,
• Strokes and heart attacks for years after infection,
• A 60% increase in diabetes, breast and other cancers, and
• Parkinson’s Disease.

Long COVID has been shown to cause many other health problems including –

• Greatly increased risk of heart arrhythmias,
• Asthma,
• Damage to the immune system resulting in increased risk of other infections, and
• Decreased I.Q. and cognitive functioning.

Tens of millions of people have persistent Long COVID problems for months and years after infection. Overall, having COVID ages the brain by about 20 years, and can double the risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease-like dementia.

You probably want to avoid these things.

The risks and consequences of COVID infection are not the same for everyone. A great deal of research has shown the single biggest risk factor for a poor outcome from COVID – severe illness, or worse – is age. The older you are, the greater your risk.

What’s been happening with COVID vaccines?

On Wednesday August 27, 2025 the FDA approved updated COVID vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax – though with new limitations on their use. These vaccines have been updated to target a newer COVID variant, LP.8.1, that is closer to the variants now circulating.

Vaccines are an important tool to help keep you safer from what could otherwise be a very serious COVID infection. No medicine including vaccines is perfect. The currently available COVID vaccines will not prevent all infections but can work very well to significantly reduce the severity of illness and make mild what otherwise could have been a serious, or fatal, infection.

Moderna has also developed another COVID vaccine, mNexspike, recently approved by the FDA. The mNexspike vaccine is a newer, lower dose, and more targeted vaccine than Spikevax. Studies showed it to be 9% more effective than the previous vaccine, and 13.5% more effective in those over 65, and 28.6% more effective in those over 65 with at least one additional health problem.

Who can get vaccinated?

In the U.S. in addition to FDA approval the CDC is responsible for giving guidelines for how approved vaccines should be used. This hasn’t happened yet and it’s uncertain when it might occur. This creates uncertainty as to how the vaccines will be paid for since most insurance companies and Medicare will only cover vaccine costs if they are officially recommended by the CDC. You can pay for a vaccine yourself (which could be $140-$200) if it is FDA approved but lacking insurance coverage, though pharmacies may be reluctant to stock them until CDC guidelines are issued.

The FDA approvals come with new limitations that can be confusing. Let’s try to make some sense of them:

• Moderna Spikevax and mNexspike: approved for all those over age 65, and those 6 months and older if they have a health condition putting them at risk of serious complications from COVID.
• Pfizer Comirnaty: approved for all those over age 65, and those age 5 and older if they have a health condition putting them at risk of serious complications from COVID.
• Novavax Nuvaxovid: approved for all those over age 65, and those age 12 and older if they have a health condition putting them at risk of serious complications from COVID.

The qualifying conditions putting someone at risk for serious complication from COVID are very broad. Take a close look even if you don’t think of yourself as having a health condition. For example, obesity, depression, and diabetes are all on the list:

What about vaccinations for children?

Per the current CDC guidance, parents of children ages 6 months to 17 years “should discuss the benefits of vaccination with a healthcare provider.†This is being called ‘shared decision making.,’ With school starting soon, now could be a good time to have that conversation.

On August 19, 2025 the American Academy of Pediatrics issued an advisory on vaccination in children that diverges from guidelines of the CDC. The AAP urged that children as young as 6 months and up to 23 months old receive the Covid-19 vaccine.

“It differs from recent recommendations of the advisory committee on immunization practices of the CDC, which was overhauled this year and replaced with individuals who have a history of spreading vaccine misinformation,†the organization said in a statement.

“I’m worried. It’s clear the youngest kids remain at very high risk. So it’s very important to keep recommending the vaccine to those kids,†said Dr. Sean O’Leary, a pediatric infectious disease expert at the University of Colorado who chairs the pediatric association’s committee on infectious diseases.

Always talk with your doctor to find out about the appropriateness, value, and any risks of vaccination for you and your family.

What about timing of when to get a booster?

If you are 65 or over (or immunocompromised), one option could be to get a dose now and then get the updated vaccine in 3-4 months, before the usual uptick around the holidays.

This strategy could make sense if you have upcoming travel or special events like weddings where your risk of exposure is higher. It takes about two weeks to ramp up your antibodies, and you want protection a week or two before you travel so you don’t get sick right before your trip. It’s also reasonable to wait for the updated shot if you’ve already had one dose in the last year and don’t anticipate higher than expected risk of exposure.

Again, always talk with your doctor to find out about the appropriateness, value, and any risks of vaccination for you and your family.

Several medical expert groups will be meeting in the coming weeks to evaluate and make their own recommendations for the reformulated COVID vaccines, including the Vaccines Integrity Project, and the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine who recommend that pregnant women receive an updated 2025-2026 COVID vaccination.

Some other things to think about…

• Your age matters. Anyone can get infected but older people are generally at higher risk than the younger. If you are over 50 and especially over 65, you should probably take additional precautions.

93% of COVID deaths are in those over age 50. If you are over 60, you are 225 times more likely to die of COVID than someone under 30. For those over 70, risk of death is 640 times greater than someone under 20. If you are older and want to stay healthy you will need to take more precautions than younger people.

• COVID has not become ‘mild.’ If anything some studies have shown it has become worse. It most definitely is not like a cold or the flu. It’s much more serious.
• Repeat infections are best avoided. Studies have shown repeat infections have 2 to 3 times the risk of a worse outcome, organ, tissue, and system damage, than the previous infection. COVID really isn’t something you want to get over and over again. Your body doesn’t get ‘used to it,’ it just hurts you more each time.
• Children are not immune from COVID, and can also suffer from Long COVID. Children can also bring infections home to their parents and grandparents who are at greater risk of a bad outcome.

Most of the people showing up at hospital emergency rooms for COVID right now are children under 18.

 

• It might be worse. It’s not yet known if the latest variants cause worse infections, but there are anecdotal reports of more severe sore throat, called ‘razor blade throat’ in those recently infected.
• Your health matters. People with some medical conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, or obesity are at greater risk of getting infected and a poor outcome if they do.
• Being outdoors is generally safer than indoors. However, it is possible to become infected outdoors, especially when in large groups of people such as music concerts and sports events. An outbreak in 2022 in Provincetown Cape Cod resulted in over 1,000 infections and was believed to come largely though outdoor transmission.
• The more people in a group the greater the chance of infection. Risk largely depends on transmission levels in a particular area but can be expected to be greater in places like theaters, stadiums, crowded restaurants and bars, and especially enclosed spaces like airplanes and public transit.
• Masks work, and work very well! A great many studies have repeatedly shown that a N95 (or equivalent KN95, KF94, or FFP2 mask) worn properly can significantly reduce your risk of becoming infected, and even reduce the severity of illness if you do become infected (by reducing the number of viral particles inhaled). Consider wearing a mask in crowded indoor spaces, and especially when traveling by plane or other public transportation.
• Ventilation helps. If indoors with a large group of people, opening windows and doors to increase airflow and air exchange can help clear viral particles from the air.The more people in a group the greater the chance of infection. Risk largely depends on transmission levels in a particular area but can be expected to be greater in places like theaters, stadiums, crowded restaurants and bars, and especially enclosed spaces like airplanes and public transit.
• Masks can be one of the most effective protective measures you can take and are not susceptible to variant evolution. If vaccine approvals are withdrawn, masks will become our primary line of protection.

For anyone wanting more information additional resources are available. The People’s CDC is an independent group of public health practitioners, scientists, healthcare workers, and others working to reduce the armful impacts of COVID. The Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative, coordinated out of Tulane University, compiles and analyzes the available data to come up with infection levels and risks.

Stay tuned for more updates on COVID and flu vaccinations if and when information becomes available.In the meantime if you want to get an updated COVID vaccine and also want it paid for by insurance or Medicare, contact our members of Congress – Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, and House members Gabe Amo and Seth Magaziner – and demand they put pressure on Robert Kennedy to immediately issue CDC guidelines for the updated vaccines.

___

Nick Landekic of Bristol is a retired C.E.O. and biotechnology entrepreneur who spent more than 35 years working in the pharmaceutical industry.